The dreadnought race was qualitative as well as Anglo-German

How would the dreadnought race change if another country built two ships per year at British gun calibres?

It would add another participant to an already multinational qualitative race, but would not fundamentally transform the Anglo-German numbers contest.

The quantitative Anglo-German contest differed from a qualitative race among Britain, the United States, Japan, and Italy, with Austria-Hungary also contributing. Germany often lagged that contest because naval spending had to compete politically with the army. The qualitative competitors still bought equipment, design talent, and technology from one another, making the race resemble an international engineering competition as much as a hostile arms spiral.